in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn *****
Short Take: The story of a young Irish woman who moves to America in the early 1950’s.
Reel Take: To describe John Crowley’s Brooklyn as a masterpiece makes it sound very grandiose, when in fact it is this film’s smallness that makes it so utterly charming. That it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is also makes it classically so. The premise is as simple as it gets – a young Irish woman immigrates to America. Perhaps it’s the story’s simplicity that allows it to genuinely tug on the heartstrings and hit all the right notes.
With no prospects for meaningful work in her native land, Eilis (pronounced EE-lish; played by Saoirse (pronounced SER-sha) Ronan) is sent to America to build a better life for herself. There she suffers the crushing despair of loneliness and homesickness, but gets a job in a department store, starts taking night classes, and falls in love with a good Italian-American boy named Tony (Emory Cohen). But just as Eilis is getting a foothold on life in the states, a family situation sends her back to Ireland.
Before she leaves she secretly marries Tony and expects to return to Brooklyn in several weeks, but back in Ireland she is presented with professional opportunities and a life with a well off local boy (Domhnall Gleeson). The prospective life in her native homeland seems much better suited for Eilis, but the life she’s built in New York is the life she has built. Sadly, no matter which life she chooses, there will be sadness and hearts will be broken.
While the story itself is quite simple and straight forward, its characters are not. The quiet layers of Eilis’ emotions draw us in. Tony’s heart-on-his-sleeve vulnerability makes us care. The major and the minor characters all have a substantive realness to them. Saoirse Ronan is all grown up and shines brilliantly as the Eilis. Emory Cohen brings a heart to Tony’s character and to the film that is undeniably appealing. Supporting cast members Fiona Glascott, Jane Brennan, Jim Broadbent, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters and Jessica Pare are as much a joy to watch and are as integral to the proceedings as Ronan and Cohen.
Everything about Brooklyn rings true, its story, its actors, its locations, and its tone. It’s a period piece that is a time capsule, but that somehow manages to not feel like a period piece; it’s just feels real. My astute colleague Chip Kaufmann made an observation that corroborates this aspect, “Trumbo is great but it feels like a well costumed period piece while Brooklyn feels almost timeless even though it takes place during the same era.”
I’ve waxed euphoric about this film’s simplicity, and in doing so I don’t mean to undermine its achievements – its elegance and, ironically, its nuanced complexity. Brooklyn stayed with me long after I’d left the theatre. There is something very dear about this film and it’s really quite magical in its own way. At press time, we know it is scheduled to play at The Fine Arts Theatre in downtown Asheville and at the Carolina Cinemas on Hendersonville Road.
Whatever you want to call Brooklyn – a ‘classic,’ a ‘masterpiece,’ etc., it’s one of the best pictures of the year. See it.
Rated PG-13 for a scene of sexuality and brief strong language.
Review by Michelle Keenan
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 ***1/2
Short Take: The final installment of The Hunger Games franchise is a remarkably grim affair with a hard-to-follow plot but as finales go, it’s an above average effort.
Reel Take: While fans of The Hunger Games will be sad that the series has ended, I’m not so much glad as relieved that I won’t have to sit through another one. I’m sure Jennifer Lawrence is relieved as well even though this has made her rich and helped her to win the Entertainer of the Year Award for 2015.
I had no intention of revisiting the previous entries before seeing Part 2 but I should have revisited Part 1 just to keep track of what’s going on. Like the last Harry Potter film this story could easily have been streamlined into one feature which would have simplified matters and would have reduced the continually excessive battle sequences but then it would have deprived Lionsgate of an additional $500 million.
The fact is that I have become too old for this kind of movie. It’s not the material but the presentation that gets to me. Hyperactive videogame based visuals with over-the-top music and sound effects keep me from getting into it as much as I should. With Mockingjay – Part 2 this was a real shame because if you can get past the 3-D/IMAX effects there are the interesting social observations and the characters that we have grown to love/hate.
If you haven’t seen any of the other films in the series, this is definitely not the place to start as you’re expected to know what happened before so that you can follow what happens here. I’ll do my best to streamline the Star Wars like plot. Recovering from injuries sustained in Part 1, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) leads the rebel forces in an all out assault against the Capitol in order to get her nemesis President Snow (Donald Sutherland). She perseveres but not before discovering that things aren’t what they seem to be.
That’s a gross oversimplification but it tells what you need to know (and keeps the review to a manageable length). It also sets you up for the twist ending which, having not read the book, I was totally unprepared for. I give Mockingjay – Part 2 high marks for that. I also give high marks to the many fine performances including Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman who died with one week of shooting to go, and of course Donald Sutherland still going strong at 80.
I was surprised by how grim this final installment turned out to be with a lot more major character carnage than I was expecting but then the same could be said of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows where several major characters bite the dust. The ending also bore a strong resemblance to the one in Deathly Hallows and that’s all I’ll say about it.
To be fair, after watching several high quality smaller scale films (check out the other reviews this month minus Spectre), I really was not much in the mood for MJ 2 and what I have to say about it certainly won’t affect how it does at the box office. It may, however, give those readers unfamiliar with the series enough background to see if they want to check it out for themselves.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and for thematic material.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Spectre ***1/2
Short Take: Bond is back and he’s getting a back story.
Reel Take: Daniel Craig reprises his role of James Bond for the 4th time for the 24th installment of the franchise. Spectre is slick, action-packed, beautifully filmed and well-acted, but it’s also a bit of a mess. Bloated budget and running times aside, it just doesn’t know exactly which kind of Bond film it wants to be. Goofy, gadgetry Bond? Misogynistic Bond? Uber cool and aloof Bond or a burned out Bond that wants to quit his job, chuck the gun and run away with the girl?
That’s not to say the movie isn’t fun. It is. And Craig delivers another wonderfully rugged yet somewhat tender performance as the British super spy. I think perhaps director Sam Mendes, out of deference and respect to the franchise, tried to make this Bond film too many things for too many people and in doing so, undermines it.
Spectre picks up about a year and half after where Skyfall ends. Bond has once again gone rogue in order to follow the trail of bread crumbs to Spectre and arch villain Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). The first time we see Oberhauser we think, this is going to be good, really good. This is the arch villain who has been the mastermind behind everything we’ve seen in the Craig chapters of the franchise. I was ready for Christoph Waltz to sink his teeth into his evil character. The only problem was there wasn’t much for him to sink his teeth into. This is Christoph Waltz, people! If you get Waltz to be your bad guy, you don’t squander the opportunity!
While we’re talking about wasting opportunities, let’s address this chapter’s primary love interest, Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). While there’s nothing really wrong with her, she just didn’t have the necessary presence to be a Bond girl, especially one who’s going to have an actual relationship with him. Making matters worse, she and Craig didn’t seem to have a lot of chemistry either, which then makes one of the plot points hard to believe. (Earlier in the film Monica Bellucci, who is now 50, makes a short but passionate appearance and it sizzles.)
In a curious sub plot it seems that M’s (Ralph Fiennes) new boss C (Andrew Scott) seems to be phasing out MI6 as we know it and replacing people with unmanned technology. M gets to have some fun with Q (Ben Wishaw) in that arena and that’s just plain fun.
I guess in the end, it wasn’t that this Bond couldn’t do with a little levity, it’s just that you have to strike the right balance. With Craig we’ve been given a serious Bond with some heart wrenching story lines (the deaths of Vesper and Judi Dench’s M) and to undermine it with something so much less substantive is just wrong. Even with the more serious tone of the preceding three films there was still levity (they are James Bond films after all), but with a new balance; Bond for a 21st century audience.
That said, Spectre sets us up for the next film. James Bond will return and I’ll be looking forward to it.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some disturbing images, sensuality and language.
Review by Michelle Keenan
Spotlight *****
Short Take: The story of the Boston Globe journalists who exposed the Catholic Church’s massive cover up of sexual abuse.
Reel Take: A movie about a group of journalists from the Boston Globe who expose the massive cover up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church may not exactly sound like a fun night at the movies. But believe me, you will want to see this film. Spotlight is one of the must-see movies of 2015.
A month or so ago I reviewed Truth, the story of the 60 Minutes team whose story on President George W. Bush’s military record dismantled the careers of CBS anchor Dan Rather, his producer Mary Mapes and others. While the ideals of that film were good and the story well-intended, it wanes in comparison to the newsroom drama that unfolds in Spotlight.
The film centers around four investigative journalists who produce the “Spotlight” section of the Boston Globe. Michael Keaton plays Robby Robinson, the editor of the “Spotlight” team. Mark Ruffalo as Mike Rezendes, Rachel McAdams as Sacha Pfeiffer and Brian D’Arcy James as Matt Carroll round out his team, with John Slattery as Boston Globe publisher Ben Bradlee, Jr. When new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) comes to the Globe by way of the New York Times and the Miami Herald, everyone anticipates a shakeup.
When Baron assigns the Spotlight crew a piece about a priest suspected of pedophilia they have their doubts (they are all lapsed or non-practicing Catholics) and they have their concerns; 53% of the Globes readership was Catholic and the church held (and holds) much power in Beantown. But as the investigation unfolds it unearths a much bigger story – not just one priest but dozens and dozens. The magnitude of the investigation is lost on no one.
Watching journalists research and document their story is not typically riveting stuff, but here it’s fascinating. The Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal is a tough subject to palate, but here we can; the film handles a heinous situation with beautiful humanity. We know how the story ends, but somehow it’s still suspenseful. Ultimately Spotlight pulls off everything it sets out to do and somehow keeps it deeply moving entertainment throughout.
Director Tom McCarthy (Win Win, The Visitor) strikes all the right notes here. The script is stunning. The pacing is perfect. The acting is amazing. There are no false steps, no weak links, and all of it feels so very real. Attention to details and subtle nuance give this film great life. It works on all levels. Even the hue of the film somehow feels like newspaper; don’t ask me to explain it, it just does.
In many ways Spotlight resembles All The President’s Men; a few tenacious print media reporters going up against a Goliath. It’s a brand of dogged journalism and integrity that is found in few places these days. Ironically, if there was a newsroom drama that was going to be called ‘Truth’ this year, it should have been this one. Spotlight isn’t a message movie. It’s never preachy, but it effectively shines a spotlight on the societal importance of long format journalism and the search for truth.
Rated R for some language including sexual references.
Review by Michelle Keenan
Suffragette ****
Short Take: Story of the suffragette movement in England around the time of World War I is vivid and concise with stellar performances from Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter.
Reel Take: Unfortunately, as is often the case, this movie will have left Asheville theaters by the time this issue hits the streets. However, it is not one of those movies that needs a big screen to get its point across as it concerns story, history, and ideals rather than non-stop action to make an impact.
In this era of less than 50% voter turnout, it is necessary to revisit how important the right to vote is especially for women whose right to vote in this country is less than 100 years old. Only since 1920 have they had this right (1918 in England). Most people hear the term suffragette without really knowing what it means and how difficult life was for the women who advocated it.
Suffragette tackles this lack of knowledge straight on by telling the story of a fictional character who interacts with the real life leader of the suffragette movement. Carey Mulligan plays Maud Watts, a young woman working under Dickensian conditions in a laundry with several other working class women. She began working there as a child and now has one of her own. Her husband George (Adam Michael Dodd) works there as well.
While out making a delivery, she becomes accidentally involved in an act of civil disobedience as activists throw bricks through high end shop windows. In the melee that follows she is arrested along with the perpetrators and taken to jail. There she meets a sympathetic but by the book inspector (Brendan Gleeson) who is charged with dealing with the lawbreakers.
After her treatment in jail and her husband’s reaction, Maud joins the cause which is locally led by Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter), a neighborhood pharmacist with a sympathetic husband who must legally own and run their drugstore. After a rally attended by suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Maud and the small band of women due whatever is necessary to gain attention even to placing bombs in letterboxes.
What makes Suffragette so compelling is being able to witness what working conditions were like for these women and how brutally they were treated by their employers, the authorities, and sadly, by their husbands. One example drives this point home quite effectively. While on a hunger strike in prison, Maud and other women are forcibly tube fed as the British government wanted no martyrs.
All of the performances are top notch but it is Carey Mulligan, carrying the bulk of the story as the Everywoman character, who really stands out. Helena Bonham Carter, as the local activist/pharmacist, does her best work in years while Meryl Streep makes the most of her 10 minute cameo.
There are some who seem to find Suffragette a little too staid and tidy and while it is not nearly as ugly and brutal as what really happened, it must be taken into consideration that is a film designed to reach a mainstream audience in order to draw their attention to something they probably don’t know. Viewed from that perspective, it makes a powerful impression. Watch for it either on DVD or by streaming video.
Rated PG-13 for violence, thematic material, strong language, and brief nudity
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Trumbo *****
Short Take: A remarkable biopic about a shameful episode in Hollywood history features a superb central performance from Bryan Cranston and excellent period recreation.
Reel Take: Anyone who has studied or is somewhat aware of Hollywood history knows or has heard of “the Hollywood 10”. They were a group of left leaning (the word liberal wasn’t in use then) writers, performers, and directors who had been involved with the American Communist Party at one time or another.
The unofficial spokesman for this group was screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo had a very successful career during the World War II years but when the mood of the country changed after the war, his career and the careers of others like him became casualties of the Cold War paranoia and anti-Communist hysteria that seemed to spring up overnight.
Trumbo and 9 others were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify in a prescribed manner and were jailed for almost a year. When released they were unofficially blacklisted and wound up working under pseudonyms or using others as “fronts” who took credit for them (remember The Front with Woody Allen from 1976?).
This all came to a head when Trumbo, writing under the mane of Robert Rich, won an Oscar for the screenplay of The Brave One, a 1956 film about a Mexican boy and his bull. The word was out and arch-conservatives like columnist Hedda Hopper went on the warpath trying to make sure the studios wouldn’t rescind the blacklist and employ anyone who had “Communist sympathies”.
That’s the history depicted in Trumbo which is accurate although some key players who named names like Edward Dmytryk (director of The Caine Mutiny and the only one of the 10 to recant) are overlooked. This is unfortunate but understandable as they lack the profile of Edward G. Robinson who is portrayed. I’m not sure if low budget producer Frank King played as big a role as John Goodman does but he brings a good dose of humor to the proceedings.
What we do have, appropriate considering the subject and the material, is a Hollywood version of a Hollywood story which could be suitably ironic although I don’t think that that’s what director Jay Roach had in mind. However, as a movie trying to reach as many people as possible in order to recreate a neglected part of history (and now strangely relevant once again), this was the way to go.
The ensemble cast performances of key Hollywood figures from that time is truly extraordinary. While they don’t physically resemble their real life counterparts (John Wayne & Edward G. Robinson for example), they more than embody them which is far more important. Helen Mirren is a wonderfully cruel and vicious Hedda Hopper while Dean O’Gorman’s Kirk Douglas (who is still alive at 98 and gave the film his stamp of approval) is spot on.
The movie, not surprisingly, belongs to Bryan Cranston as the titular character. He owns Dalton Trumbo and he needs to for Trumbo is the catalyst for everything that happens in the film not to mention having the most screen time. He gives a memorable performance far removed from Breaking Bad that allows us to see Trumbo warts and all and there were definitely warts.
I’ve already mentioned Helen Mirren but kudos should also go to Diane Lane as Trumbo’s long suffering wife Cleo who has to keep their large family together and to Louis C.K. as fellow blacklisted screenwriter Arlen Hird. They are the heart and soul of the film and help to raise Trumbo from interesting biopic to rewarding cinematic experience.
Rated R for language including sexual references.
Review by Chip Kaufmann